1 Kings 13:6 NKJV
Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
This is an interesting story of restoration. It would be hard for some of us to receive restoration in a case like the one recorded in 1 Kings 13. The king had stretched out his hand against the prophet of God because he did not like what the prophet said. Even though the man of God spoke what he believed God gave him, the king had the audacity to come against him, which made him actually come against God. God responded and withered the king’s hand so that he could not pull it back. The king became sorry when he realized his folly and asked for mercy. God answered the prayer of the prophet and restored the king’s hand. Most of us would not have received restoration for one or two reasons. First, we would be so ashamed of what we had done that we would not believe God would hear our prayers and fix the problem. Another reason that we might not receive is because we would not have the humility to accept the fact that we could be forgiven to the point of restoration. It would seem like we deserve the punishment and so we would treat it like penance – a way to pay for our mistakes. This king was sorry for what he did but believed that God would accept his repentance and have mercy on him. He also humbled himself to ask for the restoration instead of choosing to pay for the sin with his condition. Can we be bold enough and humble enough to go to God asking for restoration, focusing on His goodness and not ours? This story shows how good God is. We can only imagine the greatness of God’s mercy. This man came out against God’s representative to do him harm and yet God forgave him and restored him because he asked and was truly sorry for what he did. His sincerity was evidenced by his wanting to bless the prophet after his arm was restored.